With a national franchise network and thousands of customer interactions each month, McGrath Estate Agents knew that happy customers were the byproduct of everything they did, but they didn’t always have visibility into sentiment before problems escalated. The business covers multiple aspects of real estate, including property management for multi-unit buildings.
They brought in AskNicely and leveraged the integration with leading property management cloud software, PropertyMe. When they did, McGrath gained real-time visibility into customer sentiment across the properties they manage — eventually allowing them to turn feedback into action, recognition, and measurable improvements in both customer and employee experience.
Let’s take a closer look at the challenges McGrath was facing and how the integration of AskNicely, along with PropertyMe, helped solve those problems.
Before AskNicely, McGrath was typically getting their customer feedback reactively. Client complaints surfaced too late, often via Google Reviews or Facebook posts, and identifying recurring issues across offices was difficult.
Without a consistent view of NPS and CSAT, teams were left guessing where to focus improvement efforts. They were stuck looking at revenue indicators like lease renewals and increases, with no deeper insights into the “why” behind the numbers.
"I've always been a big believer that if you don't have an NPS of any form in your business and you don't understand what your customer sentiment is, then you're really missing the point on CX,” said Jess Alvial, Head of Franchise Property Management at McGrath.
She had used AskNicely in a previous role and knew just how much value it could provide. Instead of focusing on solving one problem at a time, she knew the path to true customer satisfaction was through experience management.
“It's not just a matter of calling somebody and trying to smooth over a problem,” she said. “If you're not digging deeper and actually looking at the core issues and fixing them within the business, you're only going to be making one call, telling a customer that it's going to be okay, reassuring them, and then a couple of months down the track, there's going to be another problem with their account,” Jess said.
She understood that changing the experience had to come from not only collecting data, but using it to train teams, give them access to feedback, and close the gap between surveys and behavior.
Jess helped champion AskNicely as a core CX system, not just a survey tool for McGrath.
By pairing AskNicely with PropertyMe, McGrath embedded feedback directly into day-to-day operations. They used NPS surveys to capture overall relationship health, and trigger CSAT surveys at key moments in the customer journey to pinpoint specific friction points.
The AskNicely and PropertyMe integration eliminated manual work, reduced risk, and created an automated system while still giving leadership full control and visibility. “PropertyMe understands they can enhance their platform by working with best-in-class partners. Having AskNicely as one of those core integrations is a no-brainer,” Jess said. Using this powerhouse tech combination, McGrath was able to fundamentally change their business, resulting in:
McGrath leverages the Review Request feature that AskNicely has to turn customer feedback into social proof online. “PropertyMe and AskNicely have made it easy to collect positive feedback and turn it into reviews. So we're driving social proof and business exposure,” said Jess.
They recognize a job well done. “The spin on everything has gone from making customer feedback scary to it actually being empowering and uplifting. Then, tying the recognition piece into it as well has got some really positive impacts,” said Jess.
McGrath was able to automate and eliminate risk with the integration of AskNicely and PropertyMe. “Having the integration with PropertyMe, having that availability has been amazing in terms of time saving as well and lowering risk because it's all automated at the end of the day,” Jess said.
Using AskNicely and PropertyMe helped the team at McGrath identify customer pain points and build stronger relationships in the process. In one instance, a customer received statements each month with accounting errors, which led her to give a detractor score on her survey. “We knew fundamentally there was a problem with our accounting processes, so we needed to fix that,” said Jess. But she was also able to connect with the customer on a personal level, forming a better relationship and making sure the customer knew they were valued.
For McGrath, AskNicely isn’t just about collecting feedback; it’s about closing the loop, recognizing success, and continuously improving the experience for customers and property managers alike.
“We can implement all of the processes and systems in the world and create efficiency around what we do. But if you have no idea what your customer is thinking, at any point in time, there is zero point to having all of those things in play,” Jess said.
